


Not Alone

by Servena



Series: Lucky [2]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: After Holland, Comfort Reading, Dehydration, Exhaustion, Fever, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, M/M, Nausea, Pre-Relationship, Reading Aloud, Sick Character, Sick!Gene, Sickfic, Stomach Ache, Vomiting, gene's pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-22 16:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20877383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: When Gene wakes up about two hours later, judging by the change in the light falling through the window, Babe is still there.





	Not Alone

When Gene wakes up about two hours later, judging by the change in the light falling through the window, Babe is still there. The book has slipped out of his hand and landed on the floor and Babe himself has sunk sideways onto the bed so that he’s lying next to him.

Gene really ought to nudge him and ask him if he’s got somewhere to be, because he’s pretty sure there was a field problem today that he only got out of because he couldn’t keep himself on his feet. But Babe looks so peaceful when he’s asleep and his body heat feels so good next to his shivering body that Gene just can’t be bothered. So he just inches a bit closer and hopes that he doesn’t have to climb over Babe when he inevitably has to throw up again.

As it is, Babe wakes up by himself about ten minutes later. He blinks slowly before opening his eyes, his light eyelashes fanning over his pale skin and Gene literally has never seen anything cuter. Then he groans and mumbles: “How late is it?”

“Too late for your field problem”, Gene says with just a hint of a smile.

“Aww, shit”, Babe says, but he doesn’t sound particularly sorry. He sits up and rubs a hand over his face and through his hair before he fixes his gaze on Gene. “How are you feeling?”

“Like a truck jus’ ran me over”, he says truthfully. He doesn’t get sick often, which is a nice quality to have as a medic, but when he does, he goes down hard. He spent all morning throwing up his guts, and now his stomach hurts and he feels hot and dizzy even though he’s lying down.

Babe squints at him. “You look like you have a fever.”

“Think I do.”

Babe presses his hand against his forehead for a moment and it feels so magnificently cool that Gene can’t help but sigh. “Yeah, definitely a fever.”

The hand is gone much too quickly to Gene’s dismay, but a moment later Babe is back with a wet towel and that feels almost as good. “Maybe you should eat something.”

His stomach rolls sickly at the thought and he groans before saying: “Definitely not.” But he’s also a medic, so he adds: “But I oughta drink something.”

On the first attempt Gene drinks way too fast, and he really oughta know better but his throat is so dry he just can’t help himself. Moments later his stomach turns and he has to hastily scramble up and lean over the bucket to throw the water back up.

Dimly he’s aware of a hand rubbing over his back and Babe mumbling something, but he can’t understand it over the rush of blood in his ears. It still feels nice not to be alone.

It’s over quickly since there’s not a lot to throw up in the first place. Still his stomach tries to expel every last bit of it for a few more seconds until his muscles ache and his throat burns. Afterwards he’s so dizzy that he leans back against Babe for support.

“Woah, okay”, Babe says. He sounds a bit freaked out, but he’s still moving his hand over his back in slow circles. “Easy. That went well.”

Gene just nods weakly.

“Did you take one of those anti-nausea pills you gave us?”

“They don’t do shit”, Gene gasps, still trying to catch his breath.

“Yeah, I noticed. Okay, do you want to try again? I really think you should drink something.”

“I know. Give me a moment.” They stay like this until his stomach has settled down a bit, then he drinks a few careful sips of water. This time it stays down.

When he lies back down, he feels as exhausted as if he’d just run a marathon. He’s trembling, but at the same time the fever makes him sweat. He closes his eyes for a moment, but he can hear Babe take the bucket outside. When he comes back, he mumbles: “You really don’t have to do this.”

He can feel the mattress dip as Babe sits down. “I know. I want to.” A new wet towel is put against his hot forehead and he makes what he hopes sounds like a happy noise. “Do you need anything else?”

He shakes his head slightly, but then he thinks again. “Can you read the next chapter to me?”

“Sure!”

In truth he’s probably too drained to really pay attention to the plot. But Babe’s got a nice voice, and it seems to make him happy. He curls up on his side so he’s facing Babe and thinks that it’s nice not to be alone sometimes.


End file.
